Is that a knife in my spine?

War of the Burning Sky Campaign

When we last caught sight of our noble(ish) heroes they were in the heart of a magic induced hurricane attempting to find the magical core. The party had sustained a significant amount of damage gaining entrance to the sunken prison. It was in the sunken prison that the party encountered creatures shaped by the forbidden art of biomancy. Signs pointed towards the fallen mentor of Torrent, Lee Sidoneth.

It was while the party was fighting the biomanced horrors that Naktor began exhibiting stranger behavior than usual. He began raving and ran on ahead of the party shouting incoherently. The party rushed after their afflicted comrade noting the trail of carnage he left in his wake.

The rooms the party passed through in their search for Naktor showed signs of recent use. The rooms took on a more clinical nature, revealing themselves to be arcane laboratories. Sora was able to make out several of the arcane formulae on the walls before the search for Naktor continued.

The party, in its search for Naktor, encounters a face from its past in the form of Inquisitor Damius, the Ragesian who left the party for dead on the outskirts of Seaquen. The inquisitor was much worse for wear, exhibiting several vicious wounds across his chest. The wounds seem to have been caused by one or more of the biomanced creatures created by Lee Sidoneth. Lee Sidoneth lies at the feet of the Inquisitor, his life rapidly fading. Seeing the party, a bloody grin appears on his face. ‘You are undone Inquisitor, the work I began shall be completed by these.’ Closing his eyes he cries out to the heavens , ‘Master, bring your winds!’ The wind picks up in the chamber from some unknown source. It tears at Lee Sidoneth with a fury the likes you have never seen. As the party and Inquisitor Damius look on in horror the body of Lee is torn to pieces and scattered.

Damius takes advantage of the aftermath of the windstorm to attack the party, attempting to seize the advantage. The party, down on resources and down a party member fought back, eventually taking down the inquisitor. From the corpse of the inquisitor the party retrieves a device similar to the Dianoem.

The trail ended in a circular room with a raised dais. On the dais, Naktor strained at a cover stone covered in arcane runes. The arcane formulae covering the dais were considerably more complex and archaic, showing extreme age. All attempts to decipher the runes led to splitting headaches.

Rather than seeking a cure, or a nearby cage, the party helped Naktor in his endeavor, moving the cover stone through much physical effort. The vertical well that was uncovered dropped 200 and was lit below by a red glow. Despite their misgivings the party descended the well behind a near frantic Naktor.

Below, the party encountered an ancient creature, maintained by his magics. The creature had long ago lost the trappings of mortality, inhabiting a golem-like form which crackled with arcane energy. The creature exhibited powers far beyond the capabilities of the party was, initially, hostile. After dealing several devastating spells upon the party the creature came face to face with Naktor. A moment of recognition passed between the two of them before a single phrase escaped the creatures mouth : ‘The dream of the unconquered warrior… I remember the pact and abide.’ Upon hearing the phrase Naktor collapsed to the floor, seemingly in a state of catatonia. The creature spared no time over Naktor before ascending the well, encased in a ball of crackling energy.

Once the creature had breached the rim of the well above a pure tone resounded through the chamber where the characters stood over Naktor. The chamber began to reverberate in the tone and the room began to shake in an alarming manner. Sora was able to retrieve a tome from a series of bookshelves made from the bones of some ancient beast, putting it in her backpack before returning to the catatonic Naktor. With a quick maneuver Sora delivers a tooth loosening slap upon Naktor, jarring him from his catatonic state.

The party scrambles up the well as the chamber below seems to collapse in upon itself. The party proceeds to escape the sunken prison as a series of quakes shake the prison in the aftermath of the chambers collapse.

Once on the surface the party rushes back to the Lyceum where the device is activated the leader of the Lyceum, Simeon Gohanach. In the aftermath of the activation the storm begins to fade. The city is mostly in ruins. The refugee camp has been scattered by the intense winds and torrential downpour. As the party surveys the destruction the flapping of wings is heard, approaching their position.

Takasi, Laurabec’s giant eagle mount, glides past the group then turns and lands before them. He drops Laurabec’s ranseur from his beak, and bows his head in grief.

While the heroes were busy trying to stop the masters of the storm, the holy warrior Laurabec was trying to save people from it. She flew into the storm, pulling people swept out to sea to safety, fighting to save as many lives as possible. Eventually, though, she was swept off her mount by hurricane force winds, and her body was carried out to sea. She managed to carry thirty people to the safety of a rocky island off the south shore, where they rode out the storm in a rough cave.

Takasi tells heroes that the storm is fading all across the city, but many were lost to it, including his friend and master. A few ships that were not in harbor were destroyed, and most of the Shahalesti fleet was destroyed, and those that weren’t were crippled and are now crawling away.

Takasi says that their heroism would have made his master proud, since they saved thousands of lives. Th en he says that, with his master gone, he goes to die. Spreading his wings he bids them good luck on their quest, and flies west, vanishing into the horizon

The city of Seaquen is devastated, but in this time of trial its people unite to defend each other. With incontrovertible evidence that far-away Ragesia is a serious threat, Seaquen joins the war effort. It will take a long time to rebuild, but the heroes have little time to rest. Word has come that the winter storms over southern Ragesia have faded, clearing the way for the Third Ragesian Army to march into Dassen. There is also news that the King of Dassen has survived an assassination attempt. Simeon thinks the heroes should go to the paranoid king and use their new-found fame to convince him to ally with them, and to hold off the Ragesian army.

For the next week, the sky is clear, and the weather is beautiful. Everyone in Seaquen recognizes the heroes and wants to thank them for saving their lives. They find homes hospitable, drinks free, and favors easy to request. This is not to say that things are easy for them, or that they have no enemies: there may still be spies in Seaquen, and so to keep the city safe the mages of Lyceum co-opt the teleportation beacon and hurricane orb, hoping to figure out how to control them and use them for defense.

Simeon and Lorb Vortberd sends the heroes to Lee Sidoneth’s island to see if there is any clues about the “master” that Lee mentioned while dying. The island is storm-damaged and little is left except for a few items in a lower level lab that is flooded.

The heroes find two 8th-level and two 9thlevel treasure parcels among the wreckage and a small case containing a letter with instructions from someone named “Cai.” The letter mentions that the “masters’ army” is continuing to grow and that the new code word to approach the “mount” is “Eshu.” The letter strongly hints at the existence of a book of biomantic secrets that was to be delivered to a mage named “Paradim.” It also states that the “new creations” are best suited to wintry climes, and that their touch is capable of disrupting spells and making it difficult to cast off new ones, making them effective against the Lyceum mages and the Shahalesti.

The heroes have a few days to digest this information as they prepare to travel to Bresk, the capital of Dassen, during which time Simeon rallies as many students as necessary to craft any magic items they need, letting them get practically any item they can afford.

If we listen to Zelvar, then we didn’t pick up anything. However, I noted most everything else that we found in that hut (see below). So, I’ll argue that we should have it.

You mentioned spears, and said that you would describe them later, and then we never circled back to them. I didn’t even write them down.
Also in that first hut was two magical wands, two magical daggers, leather armor, boots, cap. I noted that Katrina carried all of that stuff out of the witches den.

Map written in Relanic script traces route to fish market in Seaquen. Half-elf named Leveticus. Alchemical items and their prices.
So, witches were working with Leveticus.

I think that I mistook everything in hut #1 as Katrina’s gear, after she went off to retrieve it all. The ritual book got misplaced in the verbal shuffle.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.